Welcome to Mailbox Monday, the weekly meme created by Marcia from The Printed Page where book lovers share the titles they received for review, purchased, or otherwise obtained over the past week. Mailbox Monday currently is on tour, and this month’s host is Library of Clean Reads.
Here’s what I added to my shelves:
The Poets Laureate Anthology edited by Elizabeth Hun Schmidt, from Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity LLC
This is a groundbreaking record of poetry, charting the course of American verse over the last seventy-five years. For the first time, work from each of the forty-three poets laureate is gathered in a single volume, one that is a pleasure to read, full of some of the world’s best-known poems and many new surprises. From Robert Frost’s iconic “The Road Not Taken” to Gwendolyn Brook’s “We Real Cool,” from the elegiac Stanley Kunitz to the humor of Billy Collins to the numinous lyricism of W.S. Merwin, the wide-ranging selections in this book celebrate the monuments of American poetry.
Elizabeth Hun Schmidt has gathered and introduced poems by each of the forty-three poets who have been named this country’s poet laureate since the post, originally called the consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress, was established in 1937. Spirited introductions place the poets and their poems in historical and literary context and shine light on the interesting and often uneasy relationship between politics and art. The Poets Laureate Anthology was developed in association with the Library of Congress, the home of the U.S. poet laureate. It is an inviting, monumental collection for everyone’s library, with much of the best poetry written in America over the last century. (publisher’s summary)
West of Here by Jonathan Evison, unrequested from Algonquin Books
On the westernmost edge of the American continent lies a rugged alpine wilderness of virgin timber and free-flowing rivers choked with endless runs of sockeye and steelhead. Since the dawn of recorded history, the Klallam Indians have thrived upon the bounty of the Elwha River. In 1889, on the eve of Washington’s statehood, the Olympic Peninsula remains America’s last frontier. But not for long. As northwestern expansion reaches its feverish crescendo, the clock is ticking on the Klallam Indians and the wilderness that has long sustained them. It is here that Jonathan Evison’s epic masterpiece begins.
At the foot of the Elwha River, the crude and muddy outpost of Port Bonita is about to boom, fueled by a ragtag band of dizzying disparate men and women, unified only in their visions of a more prosperous future. Just as explorer James Mather sets out to conquer the Olympic wilderness, a failed accountant by the name of Ethan Thornburgh has arrived in Port Bonita to reclaim the woman he loves and start a family. However, Eva Lambert, a self-styled new woman and aspiring journalist, has different plans. While she fends off her zealous suitor and fights to preserve the resources everyone else sees is endless, Ethan’s obsession with a brighter future impels the damming of the might Elwha to harness its power and put Port Bonita on the map.
More than a century later, his great-great-grandson, a middle-age manager at a failing fish-packing plan, is destined to oversee the undoing of that vision, as the great Thornburgh Dam is marked for demolition, having blocked the very lifeline that could have sustained the town. He and his fellow Port Bonitans — a convicted felon and his solicitous parole officer, an amateur Bigfoot tracker and pot enthusiast, a drug-damaged Kallam teen, and a sexually conflicted forest service employee — all yearn desperately to re-invent themselves as their futures unfold.
Evison has written a grand and playful odyssey, a multilayered saga of destiny and greed, adventure and passion. Stretching from the ragged mudflats of a belching and bawdy frontier to the rusting remains of strip-mall cornucopia, West of Here chronicles the life of one small town, turning America’s history into myth, and myth into a nation’s shared experience. (publisher’s summary)
Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor (Being the First Jane Austen Mystery) by Stephanie Barron, a signed copy won from Austenprose (thank you!)
If Jane Austen had turned her formidable wit and powers of observation to sleuthing before establishing herself as the major literary figure we know and love, then surely she would have been every inch the detective that Stephanie Barron has created in this delectable debut.
“I would rather spend an hour among the notorious than two minutes with the dull.” To Jane Austen’s surprise, her visit to the snowy Hertfordshire estate of young and beautiful Isobel Payne, Countess of Scargrave, will be far from dull. She has scarcely arrived when the Earl — a gentleman of mature years — is felled by a mysterious ailment too agonizing and violent to credit to a fondness for claret and pudding. Scargrave’s death seems a cruel blow of fate for Isobel, married but three months. Yet the bereaved widow soon finds that’s it’s only the beginning of her misfortune…as she receives a sinister missive accusing her and the Earl’s nephew of adultery — and murder.
Desperately afraid that the letter will expose her and Viscount Fitzroy Payne, for whom she bears a secret tendresse, to the worst sort of scandal, Isobel begs her friend Jane for help. Which is how Jane finds herself embroiled in an investigation that hinges on the motives of Scargrave Manor’s guests… (from the publisher’s summary)
The Rebels by Sándor Márai, which I bought at the library sale for $1
Embers…Casanova in Bolzano…and now The Rebels: the third of the rediscovered novels of the great Hungarian writer — the jolting story of a troubled group of young men on the cusp of life, and death, in World War I.
It is the summer of 1918. As graduation approaches at a boys’ academy in provincial Hungary, the senior class finds itself in a ghost town. Fathers, uncles, older brothers — all have been called to the front. Surrounded only by old men, mothers, aunts, and sisters, the boys are keenly aware that graduation will propel them into the army and imminently toward likely death on the battlefield. In the final weeks of the academic year, four of these young men — and the war-wounded older brother of one of them — are drawn tightly together, sensing in one another a mutual alienation from their bleak, death-mapped future. Soon they are acting out their frustrations and fears in a series of increasingly serious, strange, and subversive games and petty thefts. But when they attract the attention of a stranger in town — an actor with a traveling theater company — their games, and their lives, begin to move in a direction they could not have predicted and cannot control. (publisher’s summary)
Fatal Light by Richard Currey, which I bought at the library sale for 50 cents
I borrowed this from Serena last year and reviewed it for the Vietnam War Reading Challenge, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to add a copy to my personal library.
A young medic goes from his sleepy West Virginia hometown to the soul-searing terrain of the Vietnam War to learn about American “innocence” in a conflict that brings new horrors each day. When he returns home, he must confront his shattered personal history and the mysterious human capacity for renewal. (publisher’s summary)
I Am David by Anne Holm and translated from the Danish by L.W. Kingsland, which I bought at the library sale for 50 cents
This book was originally published in Denmark as David, then in the U.S. as North to Freedom. It eventually became a movie titled I Am David.
David’s entire twelve-year life has been spent in a grisly concentration camp in Eastern Europe. He knows nothing of the outside world. But when he is given the chance to escape, he seizes it. Sensing his enemies hot on his heels, David struggles to cope in this strange new world, where his only resources are a compass, a few crumbs of bread, his two aching feet, and some vague advice to seek refuge in Denmark. Is that enough to survive? (from the publisher’s summary)
The Cay by Theodore Taylor, which I bought at the library sale for 25 cents
Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it firsthand — until the freighter he and his mother are traveling on to the United States is torpedoed.
When Phillip comes to, he is on a small raft in the middle of the sea. Besides Stew Cat, his only companion is an old West Indian, Timothy. Phillip remembers his mother’s warning about black people: “They are different, and they live differently.”
By the time the castaways arrive on a small island, Phillip’s head injury has made him blind and dependent on Timothy. This is the story of their struggle to survive, and of Phillip’s efforts to adjust to his blindness and to understand the dignified, wise, and loving old man who is his companion. (publisher’s summary)
What books did you add to your shelves recently?
Disclosure: I am an Amazon associate.
© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.
LOL looks like you got some good books. Hope I didn’t twist your arm into getting Fatal Light!
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Nah, when you put it down, I figured why not? LOL
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Interesting mailbox…hope you enjoy your books.
Here’s my MONDAY MEMES POST
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Thanks, Laurel!
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I’m jealous of West of Here! The Poets Laureate Anthology looks like a new classic–one that everyone should have on their shelf. Here’s my Mailbox. Happy reading 🙂
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I wasn’t too sure about it at first, but now that I’ve seen some glowing reviews, I’m happy about the surprise package. 🙂
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Nice mailbox and those are real bargains!
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Thanks! Those library sales have really weighed down my shelves.
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Wow, quite a haul you got there! I hope you enjoy them all!
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Thanks, Amy!
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Such diversity! Makes for interesting reading. I hope you enjoy all your new books. Have a great week, Anna and happy Valentine’s Day!
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Thanks, Kaye! You, too!
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Wow, I look forward to your reviews!
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Thanks, Mary! Guess I better get reading. 😉
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I got the Poets Laureate Anthology this week, too – so excited about that one!
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It looks really good! I’ll keep an eye out for your review.
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So many interesting books! Hope you enjoy those!
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Thanks, Elysium!
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Wow, West of Here, unrequested? I am on hold for that one at the library. I can’t wait to read it.
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It was definitely a surprise package. I hadn’t heard of the book until then, but now I’ve seen some good reviews and am looking forward to having time to read it. (When, I have no idea, LOL!)
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Enjoy all of your new books! The only one I am vaguely familiar with is I am David, and that is because I saw the movie, which I did enjoy.
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I hadn’t heard of the book or the movie until I snagged it at the sale. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.
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Very interesting mailbox! I really liked Marai’s book Embers…so I will be interested to see how you like The Rebels. I also am curious about West of Here!
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I hadn’t heard of Marai, but when I saw it was about WWI, it immediately went into my bag. I just couldn’t help myself.
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here’s mine http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2011/02/mailbox-monday-human-bobby.html
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Thanks for stopping by, Mary Ann!
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Happy reading Anna 🙂
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Thanks! 🙂
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What a great list. Enjoy!
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Thanks, Carol!
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Wow! Wonderful mailbox! I hope each of these is a terrific read, Anna.
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Thanks, Suko!
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You got a lot of interesting titles! I’m planning to start West of Here soon!
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Ooh…can’t wait to hear what you think!
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Your mailbox is rocking!! Enjoy your new additions!
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Thanks, Staci!
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Happy Valentines Day.
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Thanks, Esme! You, too!
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Looks like you got some great books! I received 2 historicals.
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Thanks, Teddy! I’ll have to check out your mailbox.
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Oh, I just read Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor and loved it — I hope you do too! Enjoy all your books!
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I’m happy to hear that! I love the Austen variations, but I haven’t yet read a mystery!
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The Rebels and The Poets Laureate Anthology both look wonderful!
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I’m really looking forward to both of those.
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You’ve got some amazing books there! West of Here is one I am particularly intrigued by.
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I’m definitely interested in giving it a try. Sometimes the surprise packages that seem to add to our shelves make for a very worthwhile experience.
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I loved I am David and I read The Cay once a long time ago, but I hadn’t heard of the others. It looks like an interesting assortment!
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Glad to hear you enjoyed I Am David. I’m looking forward to getting to it eventually.
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Congratulations on your win of Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor. Enjoy!
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Thanks! I can’t wait to read it for the challenge.
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